Judge’s withering four-word summary of rapist Bruce Lehrmann as the eye-watering bill for his ‘omnishambles’ defamation trial is laid bare – and the biggest winner is revealed

A judge has labeled Bruce Lehrmann a “man of modest means” after the former associate was hit with a $2 million legal bill in the wake of his failed defamation lawsuit.

Judge Michael Lee made the comment during a case management hearing at the Federal Court on Thursday, following costs submissions by Network Ten’s lawyer Zoe Graus.

The court heard that Network Ten had raised as much as $3.6 million from the time the defamation action was launched in February last year, which extended beyond Judge Lee’s judgment in April.

Lehrmann is expected to pay 90 percent of the costs for the network’s successful defense of the truth, and 70 percent of the failed defense of qualified privilege, bringing the total bill – along with a small discount – to $2 million has fallen.

The final amounts will be determined by a court-appointed referee, but there are doubts whether Lehrmann can foot the bill because he is a second-year law student who has been out of a job since 2021.

However, the real winner of the trial appears to be Network Ten’s lawyer Matthew Collins KC, who was owed $768,750 for his involvement in the case alone.

Pictured: Matthew Collins KC, Zoe Graus and Tim Senior outside the Federal Court in May

The billing details were revealed in an affidavit by Thomson Geer lawyer Marlia Saunders, acting for Ten, which was tendered during Thursday’s hearing.

In the affidavit, Ms. Saunders outlined the hourly rates of individual attorneys and lawyers defending the network.

Dr. Collins was the highest paid lawyer with a daily rate of $11,000, his junior lawyer Tim Senior charged $4000 per day and was entitled to $407,900 at the end of the trial, while Ms Graus’s daily rate was $2200 and was entitled to $19,778.

Individual attorneys’ fees for Thomson Geer were also set out in the affidavit.

Ms. Saunders charges $730 per hour and by the time the trial was over was owed about $738,000 for more than 1,000 hours of work, while senior associate Connor O’Beirne’s hourly rate was $530 and about $379,000 was owed.

Another employee charged $435 per hour, a graduate $275 per hour and a senior paralegal $310 per hour.

The monthly billings in the affidavit also showed that Network Ten was hit with huge monthly billings from Thomson Geer between February 2023 and May 2024.

Most of the 25 invoices asked for hundreds of thousands of dollars for one month’s work.

The billing details are listed in the affidavit of Marlia Saunders (photo)

Lisa Wilkinson is pictured speaking to the media after her defamation victory in April

In March 2023, the network received a bill for $283,959. For April and May, $46,188 and $81,424 were billed, respectively.

The largest bill was $353,319 in December, the month of the defamation hearing.

According to the affidavit, the majority of the total costs were related to trial preparation and attendance, including preparing closing written submissions.

Lisa Wilkinson also charged the network $1.8 million that she accrued when she was hired her own legal team to defend her in the defamation action, rather than hiring Ten’s lawyers.

Her favorite firm was Gillis Delaney Lawyers, where the supervising partner charges $750 per hour and the top lawyer Sue Chrysanthou SC charges $8,000 per day.

Judge Lee said that Dr.’s daily rate. Collins may have seemed excessive to those unfamiliar with the costs associated with a defamation lawsuit, but believed his fees were in line with others in Melbourne.

Mrs Chrysanthou’s accounts were also mentioned, but it was suggested that her fees were in line with market values ​​in Sydney.

If Lehrmann goes bankrupt and the bills go unpaid, Network Ten will have to bear its own costs, and those of Wilkinson.